After toughest year ever, Myles Jury relishes second 'TUF' opportunity

http://mmajunkie.com“It was probably one of the hardest times I’ve ever had in my life,” said featherweight Myles Jury (9-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC). “[This past year] was really, really tough.”

The new year is now fully upon him, and he has another chance to make his mark in the UFC.

One year after he left the set of “The Ultimate Fighter 13,” Jury is back at the UFC training center in Las Vegas preparing for a fight that will determine whether he’ll even make the cast of “The Ultimate Fighter: Live,” which debuts Friday on FX.

The most recent time he was in Las Vegas, the undefeated Jury had already earned his spot on the reality show. But on the first day of team evaluations, he tore his ACL. Almost as soon as he got on set, he was packing his bags and going home.

Over the next eight months, moving was difficult. There were times when he couldn’t bend his leg because it was so swollen. When he could finally get back on his feet, things weren’t the same.

“My leg was like a peanut,” Jury said. “I had to build all my muscle back up.”

It might have been a perfect opportunity for Jury to feel sorry for himself. But surprisingly, he views that time as a step forward – if only in spirit.

“I come from nowhere, so getting that opportunity was great,” he said.

Aside from a few smokers he fought late this past year, Jury’s elimination fight is the first time he’s competed since a first-round submission victory at a King of the Cage event in September 2010. Not only that, it’s his first time fighting professionally at lightweight, which is the weight class featured on this season’s “TUF.” All contestants have to fight their way onto show.

Because of his history, Jury only needed to prove he was medically fit and didn’t have to go through the daylong auditions that whittled some 350 fighters down to 32 for this season. But you can bet they took a good look at his knee.

Jury obviously made that cut. Now, if he makes it past the elimination round, he’ll be stuck in the fighter house for 13 weeks. That’s a daunting amount of time for anyone, let alone a fighter. Previous seasons were shot in half the time, but because this season is shot live with live fights every week, the contestants are cooped up twice as long.

Of course, the 23-year-old Jury knows a little bit about being cooped up, so he might have an edge on others.

“You just kind of tell your loved ones you’ll see them when you get back,” he said. “It’s just something you’ve got to do and have faith and mentally hang tough through it all.”

Given what he’s been through, Jury internalized that process, and he built a mindset to live in the present. He had high expectations before, and the chance of meeting them vanished in a flash.

“I don’t want to think one thing is going to happen and something else will happen,” Jury said. “There’s too many variables right now. I just take it as it comes, and I focus on what I can control, and that’s me and what I can do.

“I’ve never seen anybody come out of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ a worse fighter. Everyone else comes out better, so I’m definitely going to keep climbing up.”